For Immediate Release
January 27, 2022
Contact: Aimee Cotton Bogush | abogush@cthumanities.org | 860-937-6648
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Connecticut Humanities Receives $50,000 from The Scripps Family Fund for Education and the Arts, to Continue Expansion of Digital Content for Teachers and Students
Middletown, CT — Connecticut Humanities (CTH) has received $50,000 from The Scripps Family Fund for Education and the Arts (SFFEA) to support content development and expanded access for Teach It, CTH’s online resource that provides educators and students with inquiry-based activities, primary source documents, and links for further exploration.
Developed in collaboration with the Connecticut League of History Organizations and the State Department of Education, Teach It helps educators incorporate Connecticut history, civics, and geography into the classroom.
“Connecticut has always been a place of connections: a conduit for different places, diverse peoples, and dynamic ideas. Now, more than ever, it is important that this notion finds its place in teaching and learning about Connecticut history,” notes Allison Norrie, Teach It contributor. A teacher in the Fairfield Public Schools, Ms. Norrie uses the platform in her own classes. “Teach It engages youth in activities that promote research, productive citizenship, and appreciation of the democratic process,” continues Ms. Norrie.
The grant follows a previous $55,485 award from SFFEA which allowed CTH to add new units with new themes focused on history and heritage with special emphasis on diversity, equity, inclusion, and access to better reflect our state’s rich cultural heritage and elevate lesser-known stories. According to Gregg Mangan, Ph.D., CT Humanities Director of Digital Humanities, “Teach It use is up 60 percent and activities such as those exploring Indigenous peoples during the Pequot War and African Americans during the Progressive Era are being accessed hundreds of times per year.”
SFFEA’s continued support allows CTH to implement the next phase of the project which includes updating the infrastructure to increase functionality, searchability, and improve the user experience as well as developing additional curriculum units that align with the Connecticut Social Studies Framework and the Educating for American Democracy (EAD) Roadmap.
“Continued support from SFFEA not only allows us to expand and diversify the content found on Teach It, but also to improve the user experience and develop new ways to work with educators interested in bringing Connecticut history into their classrooms,” adds Dr. Mangan.
A Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access (DEIA) lens and special focus on Public Act No. 19-12, an act concerning the inclusion of Black and Latino studies in the public-school curriculum, will continue to shape new content. In addition, CTH is actively partnering with the Connecticut Council for the Social Studies (CCSS) and will further extend networks that strengthen relationships with Connecticut’s educational community to develop an extensive roster of creators/developers and providers that reflects diversity throughout the process. Translations and bilingual options will make materials more accessible to non-English speaking users.
“As we align with legislative mandates for K-8 and grow content in civics, geography, and STEM, we position Teach It to effectively reach underserved and economically challenged communities. We are deeply appreciative to SFFEA for believing in our capacity to make quality educational opportunities available and accessible across the state and to support SFFEA’s goals to foster a productive citizenship and healthy democratic society and to improve the prospects of economically disadvantaged children and youth in Connecticut,” said Susan C. Muro, MLS, CT Humanities Advancement Manager and Program Officer.
For more information, contact Gregg Mangan at gmangan@cthumanities.org.
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Connecticut Humanities (CTH) is an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. CTH connects people to the humanities through grants, partnerships, and collaborative programs. CTH projects, administration, and program development are supported by state and federal matching funds, community foundations and gifts from private sources. Learn more by visiting cthumanities.org.
